The invention relates to a metallurgical vessel, in particular to a converter having a steel jacket, which at zones subjected to heavy thermal wear, in particular in the range between carrying ring and converter mouth, is provided with tube spirals flown through by a coolant. The tube spirals comprise open profiles or tube halves of preferably semicircular cross section welded to the converter jacket and connected on one end to a coolant distributor and on the other end to a coolant collector.
It is important to protect the parts of industrial furnaces, which are subject to heavy thermal wear from detrimental heat influences, by means of special cooling devices. In oxygen converters it is essential to cool te so-called converter hood, i.e. that part of the converter which extends above the carrying ring as far as the converter mouth. From German Utility Model No. 7,127,402 Such a converter-hood-cooling device is known. This device consists of individual tubes split in the longitudinal tube direction and welded to the converter jacket. Several tube spirals are combined to form tube-spiral groups and are connected to a common coolant distributor and coolant collector, respectively. According to this known construction the tube halves are bent along the largest part of the converter-jacket circumference in planes running perpendicular to the converter axis, i.e. in horizontal planes when the converter is in perpendicular position. It is a further feature of the known cooling device that for achieving an equalization of pressure and of the flow of the coolant, the tube halves of each group are connected with each other at at least one point by means of transverse canals.
In the known cooling systems, in which the cooling water flows predominantly horizontal through a plurality of tubes when the converter is in the operating position, a corrosion of the tube walls may occur, caused by the air and other gases carried along with the cooling water. The circumferential zone of the tubes which lies highest in the horizontal part of the cooling system is liable to this corrosion. In such a case the cooling device of the converter has to be put out of operation and new tubes have to be installed. Another disadvantage lies in the fact that on account of the curvature of the converter hood the tubes have to be mounted in several circumference zones of differing diameters, which means that a lot of assembly work has to be carried out. In addition to this aforementioned disadvantage several tube-spiral groups when arranged one above the other have to be connected by inclined connecting tubes which have to be bent in two planes.